Feifei Hello and welcome to The English We Speak. I’m Feifei.
Roy And I’m Roy! Feifei, do not touch my phone!
Feifei What?! I wasn’t even going to go near your phone!
Roy Well, I know you want to know who I’ve been calling – but you can’t have my contact list.
Feifei Wait! Did you hear me talking about contact tracing earlier? It’s not that kind of contact that we’re tracing.
Roy Well I don’t want a hug either! I’m not a fan of unnecessary physical contact – I don’t know why people feel the need to touch me to get my attention when I have a name.
Feifei Again, not that kind of contact. ‘Contact tracing’ is related to the coronavirus pandemic. When someone is diagnosed with Covid-19, doctors try to trace people they have had contact with to see who could be infected.
Roy So you don’t want my contact list, then?
Feifei No, I don’t need your contact list. Let’s listen to these examples.
Examples The doctors found four other people who had the virus through contact tracing.
I downloaded an app to help me with contact tracing.
Contact tracing is an important part of slowing the progression of the virus.
Feifei This is The English We Speak from BBC Learning English and we’re talking about the expression ‘contact tracing’. This is the process of searching for potential cases of the disease in people who have been in contact with an infected person.
Roy Yes, a lot of people are downloading apps to help them track and trace their potential contact with people who have the virus.
Feifei That’s right. The quicker you know you might have the virus, the sooner you can self-isolate and avoid infecting other people.
Roy This could help to slow the progress of the virus, therefore flattening the curve and lowering the strain on the hospital system.
Feifei Flattening the curve. We taught that expression a while ago, didn’t we? That was the day you destroyed my car!
Roy It was, but focus on the fact that we taught an important expression. We teach a lot of great vocabulary every week!
Feifei We do, Roy. Thanks for listening and join us again.
Roy Bye!
Feifei Bye!